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i have some cakes sitting in a rubbermaid fruiting chamber with perlite humidification and up until a couple days ago everything was running smoothly. then the humidity droppped suddenly over the course of 2 or 3 days. before this happened there was ample condensation on the inside top of the lid, the cakes were fuzzy and pinning was abundant (albeit mostly on the underside of the cakes). now the inside of the top is dry and dusty and the cakes are no longer pinning. i added more water to bring it back up to previous levels but this had no effect. temperature is probably not a factor because the chamber previously maintained its humidity over a wide range of temps including those it is experiencing now. the only thing i can think of is that salts from the vermiculite that dropped into the perlite dissolved in the water lowering its vapor pressure causing it to evaporate much more slowly. i have dropped about 2 tablespoons or so crumbled verm and cake shit into the perlite while moving fragile cakes around. anyone else have any thoughts on this? if anyone knows why my cakes pin on the bottom more than the top that would be helpful too. (they end up fruiting on both ends and i have to turn them on their sides)--eric

a friend of mine first puts a small amount of dry verm in the jar before adding substrate. This is known as the invitro double end casing tek (I think) on mycotopia.net. Check that out. That won't keep them from growing on the bottom, but it'll boost the yield on the top. Are you putting the cakes directly on perlite. If you do not want them to fruit on the bottom, which I think is a mistake, put them on something dry like foil or something. Do you have a fan in the room next to the terrarium? I ask because a fan, or strong air current directed toward your terrarium could affect your humidity. I had a friend who had the same problem.

in case anyone else has this same problem, i think i figured out what happened. i had about 6 cakes sitting on a piece of egg shell lighting stuff on top of the perlite and i believe the weight graduallly compressed the perlite so that its surface area was greatly reduced. i tested this by taking everything off, reaching in, and fluffing the perlite up with my hands to make a really rough surface with lots of bumps and valleys. then i put everything back on. within an hour the condensation was back and i think the humidity is alsmost back to previous levels.--eric